Exorcising the ghost of Russiagate: Rudy Giuliani appearing on RT after Atlas uproar makes powerful statement about US media BIAS

Trump’s personal lawyer seemed to be making a strong personal statement when he appeared for an interview on RT, just days after White House Covid-19 guru Scott Atlas offered an apology for the same ‘offense’.

To understand how significant it was for Rudy Giuliani to appear as a guest on RT’s Going Underground program, it is necessary to rewind back to Saturday, October 31. Halloween was the day it became clear that the ghost of Russiagate had still not been exorcised from the global stage. In the ‘studio’ was White House Covid-19 guru Scott Atlas, who had voluntarily agreed to be interviewed by a Russian ‘foreign agent’ – in this case, Going Underground host Afshin Rattansi. Are you spooked yet?

To make matters scarier for Atlas, he harshly criticized the response to Covid-19 in the United States, where millions of Americans are currently enduring a harsh lockdown protocol, which has been accepted as religious dogma. The refusal on the behalf of a small number of American doctors to consider a ‘second opinion’ when it comes to Covid is strange, and flies in the face of conventional medical practice, where doctors are expected to challenge each other. 

“The lockdowns will go down as an epic failure of public policy by people who refuse to accept they were wrong,” said the top Trump health official, practically dragging Anthony Fauci under the bus. “...And it became a frenzy of stopping Covid-19 cases at all costs, and those costs are massive.”

Needless to say, Atlas was quickly hounded by the usual suspects – that is, the very same left-wing media characters who pushed without question the bogus Russiagate conspiracy theory, thereby forcing RT to wear the ‘foreign agent’ badge (of honor) in the first place.

As it was with the Hillary Clinton email scandal, the primary point of Atlas’ discussion with RT – that is, the bungling of the Covid-19 response – was conveniently glossed over as the bogeyman of Russia, Russia, Russia took center stage. In fact, the Stanford University doctor was so rattled by the inquisition that he actually came out and apologized simply for speaking with an RT journalist.

Enter Rudy Giuliani, a veteran US statesman who understands the vicious nature of the US political game far better than Dr. Atlas, and who was not deterred by the doctor’s subsequent tarring and feathering. In fact, the simple act of Giuliani appearing on RT served as a powerful gesture that carried just as much weight as what was openly discussed – which was, to nobody's surprise, media bias and censorship in the US.

When Rattansi asked Giuliani to explain why the Trump administration was having such a hard time dispelling the myth of Russian collusion, the former mayor of New York City placed the blame square on the doorstep of the media industrial complex.

Asserting that “80 percent of the media is maniacally anti-Trump to the point of pathology,” Trump’s personal lawyer went on to use a slightly inaccurate historical analogy to drive home his point, saying that the US media has become to the Democratic Party “what Pravda was for the ‘Russia Socialist Party.’”

Giuliani then spoke at length on the failure of the US media to show any interest in the recent Hunter Biden laptop story, despite the fact that the FBI, according to Giuliani, had corroborated the authenticity of the evidence found on the hard drive. Not only did the media show zero interest in the story – calling it part of a ‘Russian disinformation’ campaign, of course – but Twitter took the extraordinary step of blocking the New York Post, the venerable publication that broke the story, from tweeting out the article.

The Republican Party’s frustration with such overt examples of Silicon Valley censorship exploded to the surface during a Senate hearing on Big Tech overreach last week, when US Senator Ted Cruz asked Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey point blank: “Who the hell elected you and put you in charge of what the media are allowed to report…?”

However, the main takeaway from RT’s interview with Giuliani had more to do with his willingness to appear on the channel than anything he may have said about the current state of US politics, crucial as they may be at this juncture. Giuliani’s mature gesture demonstrates that there are individuals in the US – grownups in the room – who have not been cowed by the anti-Russia witch hunt to the point where even engaging in free and open dialogue has become taboo.

If relations between the US and Russia are to reach an acceptable middle ground in the future, it will be necessary for an atmosphere of trust and respect to first prevail. As it stands, however, too many Americans are willing to espouse – despite all evidence to the contrary – the noxious and racist chant that Russia is to blame for all of the ills that befall the nation. With any luck, the aftermath of the 2020 US presidential election will sweep away the skeletons and cobwebs of Russiagate and the destructive effect it has had on bilateral relations. To that end, Rudy Giuliani must be congratulated for taking that first critical step forward. 

Like this story? Share it with a friend!